Collaboration within Student Design Teams Participating in Architectural Design Competitions

Abstract

This paper investigates design collaboration with reference to convergent and divergent idea generation processes in architectural design teams entering a design competition. Study of design teams offer a unique opportunity to investigate how creativity is fostered through collaborative work. While views of creativity often relate creativity to individual originality, collaboration requires different designers to work together towards one common design idea and consider as many different ideas as possible. In collaborative design, it would be easier to offer a variety of ideas but equally difficult to establish a consensus on a single idea. To investigate the role of convergent and divergent thinking in the design process, we interviewed three groups of architecture students who participated in competitions as a team. Interviews were analysed thematically to investigate how the teams overcame spatial, temporal, conceptual, and technological barriers. We conclude that the barriers and roles of members in design collaboration interact with convergent and divergent concept generation.